The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1887-12-08

ing this spit for the glory of God and the
| good of your soul, and you must be quiet
while we close the service with:
Blest be the tie that binds
Our hearts in Christian love.
| The earth is diametered and circum-
ferenced with discord, and the music that
was rendered at the laying of the worlds
| corner stone, when the morning stars
| sang together, is not heard now; and
though here and there, from this and that
| part of society, and from this and that
part of the earth, there comes up thrill
| ing solo of love, or a MARBLE of worship,
or a sweet duet of patience, they are
drowned out by a discord that shakes the
earth.
Paul says:
The whole creation groaneth.
And while the nightingale, and the wood
| lark, and the canary, and the plover some.
times sing so sweetly that their notes
have been written out in musical nota-
ton. and it is found that the cuckoo sings in
| the key of u, and that the cormorant is a
| basso in the winged choir, yet sportsmen's
gun ana the autumnal blast often leave
them ruflied and bleeding, or dead in
| meadow or forest. Paul wasright, for til
groan in nature downs out the prime
dome of the sky.
Tartini, the great musical composer,
dreamed one night that he made con.
| tract with Satan, the latter to be ever in
the composers service. But one night he
handed to Satin a violin, on which Dia-
bolus played such sweet music that the
composer was awakened to the emotion
and tried to reproduce the sounds, and
| therefrom was written Tartini's most
famous piece, entitled the "Dev;l's
Sonata" dream ingenious but faulty,
for all melody descends from Heaven, and
only discords ascend from hell. All
hatreds, feuds, controversies, back
billings and revenges are the DEVILS
| sonata, are diabolic fugue, are de-
| moniac phantasy, are grand march of
doom, are allegro of perdition.
But if in this world things in general
are out of tune to our frail ear how much
more so to ears angelic and deific. 1t
takes skilled artist fully to appreciate
disagreement of sound. Many have no
capacity to detect defect of musical ex-
ecution, and, though there was in one
bar as many offenses against harmony as
could crowd in between the lower F of the
bass and the higher G of the soprano, it
would give them no discomfort. while on
the forehead of the educated artist beads
OF perspiration would stand out as a re-
suit of the narrowing dissonance. While
an amateur was performing on a piano
and had just struck the wrong chord,
John Sebastian Bach, the immortal COM
poser, entered the room, and the amateur
rose in embarrassment, and Bach rushed
past the host, who stepped forward to
greet him, and before the keyboard had
stopped vibrating, put his adroit hand
upon the keys changed the painful in
harmony into glorious cadence. Then
Bach rned and gave salutation to the
host W had invited him.
But the worst of all discords is moral
discord. If society and the world are
plainly discordant to imperfect man,
what must they be to a perfect God?
People try to define what sin is. 1t seems
to me that sin is getting out of harmony
with God, disagreement with His ho'i-
ness. with His dignity. with His love, with
His commands; our will c,ashing with His
will. the finite dashing the infinite, the
frail against the pussant, the created
against the Creator. If thousand mu-
sicians, with flute, and cornet-a piston
and trumpet, and violoncelio, and haut-
boy, and trombone, and all the wind and
stringed instruments that ever gathered
IN Dusseldorf jubilee should resolve that
they would play out of tune, and put con
cord to the rack, and make the place wild
with shrfeking, and grating and rasping
sounds, they could not make such a pam
demonium as that which RACES in sinful
soul when God listens to the play of its
thoughts, passions and emotions-dis cord,
lifelong dlscord, maddening dscord. The
world pays more for discord than it does
for consonance. High prices have been
paid for music. One man gave 1925 to
hear the Swedish songstress in New York
and another 1925 to hear her in Boston,
and another $3.50 to hear her in Provi-
dence. Fabulous prices have heeu paid
for sweet sounds, but far more ha. been
paid for discord. The Crimean war cost
$l,70O,O01,0O0. and our American civil war
over $9.5o0,000, G10, and the war debts of
protested Christian nations are about S15,-
O00,o0o,O0o. The world pays for this red
ticket, which admits it to the saturnalia of
broken bones, and death agonies, and de-
stroyed cities, and plowed graves, and
crushed hearts, any amount of money
Satan asks. Discord! Discord!
But have to tell you that the song that
the morning stars sang together at the
laying of the worlds cornerstone is to be
resumed again. Mozart's greatest over
ture was composed one night when he
was several times overpowered with
sleep, and artists say they can tell
the places in the music where he was
falling asleep. and the places where he
awakened So the overture of the morn.
ing stars, spoken of in my text. has been
asleep, but it will awaken and be more
grand'y rendered by the evening stars of
the worlds existence than by the morn
ing stars, and the vespers will be sweeter
than the mathis. The work Of all good
men and women, and of all good churches,
and all reform associations, is to bring the
race back to the original harmony. The
rebellious heart to be attuned, soc al life
to be attuned, commercial ethics to be at
tuned, interna tionality to be attuned,
hemispheres to be attuned. But by what
force and in what way?
In olden times the choristers had a tun-
ing-fork with two prongs, and they would
strike it on the back of pew or music-rack,
and put it to the ear, and then start the
tune, and all the other voices would Join,
In modern orchestra the leader has a
complete instrument, rightly attuned.
and he SouptlS that and oil tho oAlo, 49,,